But frantic construction has been going on, as Afghan laborers have built high-walled compounds and flat-roofed houses from mud and straw.

Diplomats Are Targets Diplomats also say that they themselves have increasingly become targets of military lawlessness because they are believed to live lavishly behind their high-walled compounds.

Until last fall, American diplomats working in a high-walled compound in one of this city's more prosperous districts were often made to feel unwanted.

They drove him 12 hours south, over the Mexican border, into a high-walled compound near here called Casa by the Sea.

His newspaper, like other independent papers, has its offices in another high-walled compound in the heart of the capital.

Slowing down, the carrier rattled through a pair of gates and into a high-walled compound.

The gunmen took the aid workers to a high-walled compound belonging to Ahmed Adley, the commander of the Daud clan's militia.

Instead of sending them to a separate, high-walled compound, the company places them among the rank and file.

His family lived a few streets south of our home, in a posh, high-walled compound with palm trees.

His face muddied and clothes tattered, he rolled right up to the imposing gates of Zhongnanhai, the high-walled compound where China's leaders live, to give his report.